A Brief History Of The Indiana Flute Circle
The Indiana Flute Circle will celebrate it’s 25th anniversay in August 2024. It was formed after Kimball Howard from Louisville Kentucky and Steve Surette from Fischers Indiana attended a workshop in the summer of 1998. The workshop was conducted in Montana by Ken Light (Amon Olorin Flutes) and R. Carlos Nakai. Kimball and Steve learned that many Native American-style flute enthusiasts were starting flute circles in cities all over the United States and Canada. They decided to start a flute circle in Indianapolis Indiana and began meeting at the Eiteljorg Museum in downtown Indianapolis in August of 1999. The circle has continued to meet on the third Sunday of every month since its inception.On December 14, 2000 the renowned Cherokee Medicine Man and flute maker, Hawk LittleJohn, passed away in Old Fort North Carolina, and in January of 2001, a group of folks from Indianapolis and Louisville KY went down to attend the Hawk LittleJohn ‘Celebration of Life' event in Asheville North Carolina. This was a weekend filled with opportunities to meet many flute makers (Barry ‘White Crow’ Higgins, Leonard ‘Lone Crow’ McGann, Lee Johnson, Mac Lopez, Geri LittleJohn, John Madill, etc.), performers (Mary Youngblood, R. Carlos Nakai, Peter Kater, Rita Coolidge, etc.), and educators (Dr. Richard Payne, John Sarantos). People came from all over the United States and many life-long friendships were started in Asheville that weekend.At the January 2001 flute circle gathering, a representative of the University of Indianapolis came and invited the circle members to play for a national Ethnomusicology convention being held at the Christel DeHaan Fine Arts Center on the campus of the University of Indianapolis. Three members - Gary Cope, Patrick Nielander and Earl Tharp - attended and played for the event. It was that performance that inspired the creation of the Native American-style flute ensemble, Shilombish (a Choctaw word for "spirit" or "soul"). In May of 2001, Shilombish played its first official gig for the Earth Day celebration at Garfield Park on the near south side of Indianapolis in the pagoda, sharing the stage with popular Indianapolis performer, Jennie DeVoe. In 2002, Shilombish asked Carol Hatfield to join the group. During the next decade, Shilombish played at various events and venues throughout central Indiana.In 2002, Steve Surette stepped down as facilitator of the flute circle and Gary Cope, who had been a circle member since October of 1999, stepped into the leadership role. In June of 2005, the Eiteljorg Museum began a major renovation which required the flute circle to find a new gathering place. Circle member, Carol Hatfield, who joined in 2001, was working at the University of Indianapolis in the music department and was able to arrange for the flute circle to meet at the Christel DeHaan Fine Arts Center on campus.In January of 2009, Shilombish and other members of the Indiana Flute Circle were invited to play in the mezzanine of the Hilbert Circle Theater in downtown Indianapolis for the world premiere of the Indiana Concerto for Piano and Orchestra by composers Louis Ballard and Brent Michael Davids. After the concert, Carol Hatfield and Gary Cope played Native American-style flutes for a public Q&A with the ISO director, Mario Venzago and composer, Brent Michael Davids.The Hilbert Circle Theater event inspired the formation of another NA-style flute ensemble from members of the flute circle who initially named their musical group Branches Breath. In September of 2009, Branches Breath was invited to play at the Mystic Music Festival in Konya Turkey by a contact from the Eiteljorg Museum. Festival organizers paid all expenses for Branches Breath to travel to Turkey for the festival. The event consisted of 8 concerts and Branches Breath represented the indigenous music of the United States. Branches Breath has since changed its name to Heart Wind.In August of 2018 Gary Cope decided to step down as the circle's facilitator and pass the reins to Joel DeLashmit who is the current facilitator.When the pandemic struck in 2021, the University of Indianapolis stopped hosting our flute circle gatherings. Since then, we have not had a home base for our meetings. Instead, we have been meeting in parks and at various member’s homes from time to time. The last several years, we’ve had a summer celebration at the home of Angel Yeager in Greenfield Indiana. We’ve also met at the Echo Effect Arts Campus a couple times, located in downtown Shelbyville Indiana. But mostly, we have been partnering with the folks at the Brandywine Creek Winery who have graciously hosted most of our monthly gatherings since we left the University.Over the years the flute circle has been visited by some notable flute makers, collectors and players such as: the late Leonard McGann, Dennis Sizemore, Jonny Lipford , Kerry Leung, and Jonah Littlesunday.As a group, the flute circle has also had the opportunity to see and meet several Native American-style flute performers in Indiana such as:
Robert Tree Cody, Robert Mirabal, Kevin Locke, and Bill Miller.We are fortunate to have many long-time members who still attend our monthly gatherings on a regular basis, and who offer a wealth of information and knowledge about the Native American-style Flute. We currently have 149 people on our email list and over 2,500 followers on our Facebook page. We have an annual Christmas pitch-in that occurs on the third Sunday in December which usually draws a large number of members. Our holiday pitch-in was hosted for several years by long-time flute circle member Warren Lynn and his wife Betsy. For the past few years, we have had our Chirstmas pitch-in at Echo Effect Arts Campus in downtown Shelbyville Indiana.